With several key riders on County level duty in the Hafren CC 10 taking place at the same time, Oli Freeman and Phil Roberts were looking forward to a straight head-to-head for the win in Round 8 of the Decathlon Evening 10 Series by Wrekinsport – but reckoned without visiting rider Mike Senior. Making his only appearance of the season so far, Senior took the win in 22 minutes 7 seconds, starting off last from the 18 competitors – after Freeman and Roberts who started much earlier thought it was done in discussions near the finish line.
Freeman took the maximum six points on offer to Wrekinsport members by a solitary second, finishing in 22:40 to Roberts’ 22:41 as the pair had been split by exactly that margin at the 6¼ mile point in an extremely tight contest. That one second margin proved vital as it moved Freeman into the Series lead by a single point, with Roberts moving up to third in the Overall standings.
The evening was notable for a number of returning and first-time riders with first sight of Chris Halford this season taking fourth spot in 23:52. In the Road Bike Series another first sighting of 2024 took the runner-up spot as Mike Bigwood recorded 27:28, with Series leader David Seager extending his lead to nine points with a strong 26:42. Meanwhile it was a first ever time trial for Colin Smith with a creditable benchmark of 32:11.
In the Women’s Series Karen Sherriff moved up to second in the standings thanks to a 29:05 effort, seeing off a challenge from another first-timer Amy Watkins on just beating the 20mph mark with 29:56.
Decathlon Series by Wrekinsport Cumulative Standings after eight rounds
|
Pos'n
|
Name
|
Total Points
|
|
1
|
Oli Freeman
|
31
|
|
2
|
Tomos Hales
|
30
|
|
3
|
Phil Roberts
|
23
|
|
4
|
Hayley Wells
|
21
|
|
5
|
Ben Southgate
|
15
|
|
=6
|
Allan Henderson
|
9
|
|
=6
|
Ben Wood
|
9
|
|
8
|
Rich Smith
|
8
|
|
9
|
Simon Thursz
|
7
|
|
=10
|
David Seager
|
6
|
|
=10
|
Matt Price
|
6
|
Road Bike Series Cumulative Standings after eight rounds
|
Pos'n
|
Name
|
Total Points
|
|
1
|
David Seager
|
32
|
|
2
|
Matt Price
|
23
|
|
3
|
Dave Moore
|
15
|
|
4
|
Peter Jukes
|
12
|
|
5
|
Stuart Wortley
|
9
|
|
6
|
Elliott Wills
|
8
|
|
7
|
Sarah Bradshaw
|
7
|
|
8
|
Mike Bigwood
|
5
|
|
9
|
Karen Sherriff
|
4
|
|
10
|
Colin Smith
|
3
|
Women’s Series Cumulative Standings after eight rounds
|
Pos'n
|
Name
|
Total Points
|
|
1
|
Hayley Wells
|
36
|
|
2
|
Karen Sherriff
|
16
|
|
3
|
Victoria Doran
|
15
|
|
4
|
Sarah Bradshaw
|
14
|
